ALICE IN WONDERLAND

The Game of Alice in Wonderland. Selchow
& Righter, 1882.

The unique publishing history of the 1865 first edition of Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland is essential in understanding the
collecting history of the book. The Reverend Charles L. Dodgson, better
known as author Lewis Carroll, wrote the story for the daughter of a family
friend. After financing the printing and publishing of 2,000 copies of the
story out of his own pocket in 1864, the author and his illustrator, artist
John Tenniel, felt that the inking of the text and the reproduction of the
artwork did not measure up to their standards.

Although Dodgson had presented 48 copies to friends and family, the remaining
unbound sheets were sold to an American publisher, and 2,000 improved copies
were set to be published by Macmillan, also to be paid for by the
author.

Today, 23 copies of the 1865 edition of Alice are known to have
survived.

The Lilly Library owns a copy of the suppressed 1865 edition, as well as the
first American edition and the first reprinted British edition, both dated
1866. The illustration of the 'Mad' Hatter (below) is from the 1865 edition
of Alice.

Reprinted over 98,000 times by 1932, it is one of the most well–known and
beloved stories in the history of children's literature.

A matching game, The Game of Alice in Wonderland consists of 52
cards: twenty cards numbered 1–20, and thirty–two cards, numbered 1–16 in
pairs, with images of the Wonderland characters.

Pictured below are images of cards from the game and illustrations from
various editions of Alice in Wonderland in the Lilly Library
collection.

"The White Rabbit" Emily Prime Delafield, illustrated by
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Alice in Wonderland: A Play: Compiled from
Lewis Carroll's Stories Alice in Wonderland and Through the
Looking-Glass. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1898.

Based on Carroll's book, this edition of the story is notable for its Arts
and Crafts decoration and production. As stated on the title page, it was
originally presented for the benefit of The Society of Decorative Arts.

"First it marked out a race–course, in a sort of circle, ('the exact shape
doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party were placed along the
course, here and there. There was no 'One, two, three, and away,' but they
began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was
not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running
half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out
'The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, 'But
who has won?'"

Illustrated by Peter Sheaf Newell, this is one of the first editions of
Alice in Wonderland departing from John Tenniel's classic
drawings.